Paperback by Author

Runaway LeeBy Larry Eddings

Excerpt

Runaways come in all sizes, shapes and ages. Some are people who are
tired of the humdrum life in which they find themselves, so they run
away to places of imagined excitement. Others run away because they
find themselves in trouble with family members or the local police force
or school officials. Still others run away for reasons totally unknown
to them or anyone who knows them. There just seems to be something
within them that causes them to pack their clothes in some kind of bag
and then strike out on foot or bicycle or in a car, for places unknown.

Lee
Edwards was an eighteen year old boy raised on a Midwest farm. His
life was rather normal for a farm kid: farm work, school work, community
activities, ball games, girl friends and the hope that someday to have a
more rewarding life, perhaps away from the farm. Lee may have run away
for any one of these reasons or for none of them at all. He could
think of at least a dozen reasons - or none at all, as to why he left
home and "headed east."

Runaway life is hard. Food is often scarce
or non-existent, places to sleep are difficult or impossible to find
and not everyone can be trusted to have your best interest in mind.
Survival skills need to be discovered, honed and sharpened in order to
stay alive, whether hitchhiking on the highway or walking the streets
and alleys of the big cities. Work is illusive and not readily
available for a runaway kid with no work skills except farming.
There
were times when Lee wished he had made a better choice, but those times
passed quickly for he had no desire or reason to return to the place of
his birth. As years came and went, so did his memory of his family,
his home, the people in his town and his high school sweetheart.

Time
has a way of helping a person grow up and, hopefully, become more
mature. Lee did grow up and, in many ways, became more mature. In the
process he learned a very lucrative business and became somewhat
successful in his work and with his investments. He felt that he had
accomplished what a local business man "back home" had told him. "Lee,
why don't you make something of yourself? Be successful and make your
folks proud of you." He was successful and, as to his folks, they
wouldn't know if he were dead or alive. He had not been in touch with
them in twenty five years.

Then it happened! He couldn't keep running any longer. He knew he had to return to Pryor and to whatever waited for him there.

What awaited him was a twenty five year old crippled man who would impact his life in a way that would change him forever.